High salt intake makes kids obese

25 February, 2008

Children on a salty diet have more
sugary drinks that make them fat.

High salt intake is one of the reasons
for obesity in kids.

Researchers at University of London,
the United Kingdom, who studied data
on 1,600 children, have found that
children eating a salty diet are
inclined to drink more, including
sugary soft drinks that are fattening.

The study, published in
Hypertension, the journal of the
American Heart Association, says that
halving the average daily consumption
of salt – that is, 6 grams a day –
could cut 250 calories a week from a
child's diet.

According to official statistics, one
in five children in the United Kingdom
is overweight. It is feared that this
trend will lead to increasing
incidence of adult obesity, heart
disease and stroke in the future.

The study conducted at the University
of London is the first of its kind to
examine the effect of salt on
children.

The research team scrutinized data
from the National Diet and Nutrition
Survey, conducted in 1997, using a
sample of 1,600 children aged 4 to 18
years who had all had their salt and
fluid intake measured precisely.

It was found that children eating a
diet low in salt drank less fluid.
Reduction of 1 gram of salt from a
daily diet would reduce intake of
fluid by 100 grams a day. And, about a
quarter of those 100 grams would be
sugary soft drinks.

The researchers urged parents to check
the salt content of their children's
meals and manufacturers to find ways
to reduce the salt content.

Professor Graham McGregor, one of the
authors of the study report and
chairman of Consensus Action on Salt
and Health, was quoted as saying,
"While some manufacturers had acted to
reduce salt levels in bread and
cereals – the main sources of salt for
children – there was still plenty left
for the industry to do. Unfortunately,
some food specifically targeted at
children has to be laced with salt
otherwise it would be inedible,
because it is made from mechanically
recovered meat. The salt levels in
some of these products have been
brought virtually up to the level of
sea water.”

Scientists forecast that a quarter of
children will be obese by 2050 –
resulting in a huge increase in the
number of cases of Type 2 diabetes,
heart disease, stroke and cancer.

Guidelines issued by the British
government say that children aged
between 1 and 3 should eat no more
than 2 grams of salt a day, those aged
between 4 and 6 should not have more
than 3 grams, and those aged between 7
and 10 years should limit consumption
of salt to a maximum of 5 grams.

Adults should not take more than 6
grams of salt a day. It has been
estimated that, in the United Kingdom,
the average adult consumes around 9
grams of salt a day.